


Rubble

by fragilecapricornpanic



Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [49]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Feels, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Number Five | The Boy, Missing Scene, Number Five | The Boy Deserves Better, Number Five | The Boy Has Issues, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Number Five | The Boy Whump, Number Five | The Boy has PTSD, Number Five | The Boy-centric, One Shot, One Shot Collection, POV Number Five | The Boy, Post-Apocalypse, Pre-Canon, Whump, Young Number Five | The Boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:21:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26274031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragilecapricornpanic/pseuds/fragilecapricornpanic
Summary: Set immediately after the the scene in which thirteen year old Five found his adult siblings’ bodies. Five reacts to his discovery, and makes a difficult decision in order to process his grief. Importantly, where are adult Five, Six, and Seven?Canon compliant.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy)
Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [49]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869709
Comments: 4
Kudos: 97





	Rubble

**Author's Note:**

> TW description of dead bodies, grief, and decomposition.

Until Five had seen the umbrella on the man’s wrist, he’d been forcing himself to believe they weren’t his siblings. They couldn’t be, he’d only just left them. They were thirteen... not whoever these people were. Five was pretty much desensitised to dead bodies, their dad saw to that. But these people were reminiscent of his siblings, seeing them like this was stealing all the air from his lungs. He slumped down to the dusty floor, banging his butt on a piece of rubble. He barely noticed, he couldn’t take his eyes from the man with the dark hair. Could he maybe just be a huge fan of them, and the tattoo was some kind of tribute? Maybe it was just a coincidence that the other group of adults had looked relatively like the siblings he’d left at home. He could go home, right? He just needed to rest, get his power recharged... this wouldn’t even count as reality. He could go back and change things.

He couldn’t bring himself to approach the man further, Five supposed this was how ordinary people felt towards corpses. If these grown ups were his family, then why weren’t Ben and Vanya here? It was unrealistic for only his two favorite siblings to have survived... maybe this was all just a bad dream. He would wake up in his cozy bed and be able to start this day again, stop himself from storming out of the mansion. _Five must be here too, right?_ himself but grown up. If they were all together at the end, he must’ve been there too. Five peered at the man in front of him. There was a resemblance to his brother, but it was hard to say if it was definitely him. He looked too old, too grown up. Klaus was thirteen, not however old this man was. Curiosity got the better of Five, and he nervously edged towards the man. With a horrified wince, Five heaved him onto his back - as much as the rubble would allow. He apprehensively shoved his hand in the man’s pocket, looking for some kind of identification. As his hand felt a flask, Five’s blood ran ice cold. 

“No, no, no.” Five whimpered to himself as he pulled the flask from the man’s coat. Not just any man, _his brother._ He dropped the flask to the ground after glancing down at it for a moment. He was shaking like a leaf, the reality of the situation dawning on him. Now the man was more on his back, Five could see into his eyes. His dead eyes. His _brother’s_ dead eyes. This wasn’t Klaus, not _his_ Klaus. Five shuffled away from the man, tripping backwards and toppling down. He hissed to himself, feeling a series of scrapes tearing at his skin. Five wiped the tears from his face and trudged along to the other adults he’d found. Where were Vanya and Ben? Where was the grown up version of himself? Five scanned his vision around the rubble, tearing through it as much as he could. Five was too weak to move most of it, which just caused him to grow more distressed and desperate. His breathing was pure hyperventilation, the dust in the atmosphere seeping into his lungs and drying his throat. Maybe Vanya and Ben were crushed... they were always the shortest. He wasn’t sure if it hurt more to see the bodies of his other siblings, or worse to not be able to find the bodies of his closest friends in the world. Where was _Five_? 

The pretty woman with the blonde curls was closest to Five after his hunting around the rubble. She had to be Allison. She didn’t look right, it looked so wrong for her to be a grown up. She was old enough to be his mom, Five thought. That felt so wrong. He’d only seen her less than an hour ago, she was smirking coyly at the dining table. How could this be her? “Allison...” he whispered as he crouched down beside her. Whilst the pale man had been more difficult to recognise, this woman was unmistakably his sister. He brushed at her curls with his finger - feeling like he was going to vomit. She looked almost peaceful, but the rubble crushing her gut and the dust coating her was enough to ruin that expression. “Allison.” he whimpered, his tears falling onto her face and breaking up the dust. He wanted to wipe his tears from her face, but couldn’t bring himself to touch her deceased skin.

There would be maggots soon, Five thought as he dragged himself upright and made his way towards the other men. Dad made sure they knew about the decomposition process of the human body. Five couldn’t just let them be savaged by maggots and all sorts of unsavory creatures. Their flesh would begin to rot, they’d begin to stink and grow rancid. The man with the tan skin and black hair had a massive scar running down the side of his scalp. He had to be Diego, his brother was collecting more scars each week. They’d only been bickering the night before. How could Diego be a grown up now, a _dead_ grown up? “I’m sorry...” Five whispered regretfully, feeling like an idiot that the last thing they spoke about was who got to go in the bathroom first. Five had just wanted to have a bath. It didn’t matter anyway, because those weren’t their last words. Five was going to go back, back to where he belonged. Back to his thirteen year old living siblings - not these strangers in front of him. This Diego looked different, his face had grown jaded, not like _his_ Diego he’d seen earlier.

As he stumbled through the rubble back towards the large man, panic began to brew in Five’s soul. If grown up Five wasn’t here... did that mean... did that mean he didn’t go back? Did that mean he was stuck here?! He _had_ to be here... maybe he was just buried somewhere with Ben and Vanya. He’d find them too, they’d all be together Five reassured himself. As Five crouched down beside the large man, he scraped his knees on some bricks. He hardly even noticed, just letting out a slight hiss. Why was this Luther so _huge_? He was always larger than the others, dad said it was because of his power. But Five wasn’t expecting him to grow quite so ginormous... the sight of his still outstretched hand sticking upright in rigor mortis made vomit rise in Five’s throat. Despite the fact that he desperately wanted to not go near his brother’s body, Five forced himself to shove his arm down. At least then he might look more peaceful, more like Allison. Pushing the man’s arm down used all of Five’s might, he had to groan in determination. Tears were spilling down Five’s face so heavily that it was hard for him to see, the bleariness of his tears mixing with the dust floating through the air. He had to find Five, Six, and Seven. It was fitting that they would go out of this world together. Five would change that though, once he went back home.

—

After hours of searching, growing progressively more distressed - Five forced himself to stop for today. He could go back to searching tomorrow, he needed time to recharge his energy before he could go home anyway. They were going to be here, they were just buried. Adult _Five_ was here, and he couldn’t bring himself to consider the alternative. He trudged his way across the rubble, stumbling every few steps - both from his fatigue and the unsteadiness of the chaos below him. The canister of gasoline he’d collected on his journey kept splashing when he fell, the stench sticking to him and forcing him to think of what he was intending to do. _Could he bring himself to do it?_ he wondered as he made his way towards the grown ups. As he neared them, his breathing once again began to verge on hyperventilation. He was terrified of how he would find them, now they’d been left to rot for several more hours. “Please don’t be maggots.” Five begged to himself. The image of them savaging his siblings eyes kept pouncing into his mind, causing him to flinch and snivel.

Approaching the man who Klaus would become, Five cringed deeply - bracing himself to touch him once again. He needed to close his brother’s eyes, he couldn’t stand to know they were open - absent and empty. Staring yet blank, all at once. Five whimpered to himself as he leant down, sobbing like an infant as he forced himself to drag his brother’s eyelids down. There was resistance, his body already stiff. Once they were closed, Five took a moment to try and steady his breathing. He didn’t have to touch them anymore now. Five regretfully reached for the gasoline canister, crying so harshly his breathing sounded like hiccups. He poured the liquid over his brother, his tears falling and blending with the fluid. Five gulped to himself as he struggled along the rubble to his other siblings. His eyes were so clouded by tears, he tripped and spilt even more of the gasoline on himself. His knee was bleeding profusely. It didn’t matter, Five had to get this over with. He dragged himself upright, and poured the gasoline on his sister. “I’m so sorry...” he whispered, wincing with preemptive guilt. Five stumbled along to his two brothers, dousing their soon-to-be rotting flesh. Five reached into the pocket of his shorts, pulling out the book of matches he’d looted with shaking hands. “I’m so sorry.” he whimpered as he braced himself to strike the match. Five planned to pull his free arm to cover his nose once the match was lit. He couldn’t stand to smell what was to come.

Five had purposefully left a trail of gasoline, so only one ignition would be needed. He was afraid he couldn’t bring himself to finish if he had to do it four times. Five shuffled back from the body of Luther, almost falling backwards onto his butt again. He had to be careful not to be near the gasoline he was going to ignite, he was too doused in it himself. Five would go up with them, and he’d never be able to go back home and save them from this fate. Once safely distanced, he struck the match and threw it at the rubble surrounding his brother. Five backed away as quickly as he could, unable to witness the consequences of his actions. Pulling his elbow over his nose, he tried to force himself to breathe somewhat steadily so he wouldn’t pass out. He had to go back, he needed to go home. He had to stop this. The air grew black with thick smoke, causing Five to hack a ghastly cough. He spared the site one last horrified glance before rushing away, far away from here. The knowledge that the glass eye was tucked in Five’s pocket was in the background of his thoughts. What did it mean, why did grown up Luther have it clutched in his hand?

**Author's Note:**

> Im not able to write the requests or continue my 1963 Diego fic rn but I will once I’m less busy! I have more pre-written things for this series but I want to make sure they’re not out of character before I post. Do you guys like angst as well as the more humorous ones? I have a lot of angsty ones I haven’t posted yet incase they were too morbid


End file.
